


Protect Me From What I Want

by pissedoffpineapples



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-13
Updated: 2015-04-24
Packaged: 2018-03-22 15:30:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3734035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pissedoffpineapples/pseuds/pissedoffpineapples
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A spontaneous, chance encounter leaves Skye yearning for more of Melinda May, and after a risky bet is made with high stakes, May has to decide if she is truly a woman of her word, even for a request like that.<br/>[Taking place right after season 1]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was a brief moment. A flash. It was something that, when filtered through Skye's mind, filled her with both a longing and a humor. A desire, and a rage.

It was an intense moment. Echoing footsteps had traipsed down the hall in the base. Skye had learned from sleeping there in the waves of fear that followed the fall of SHIELD, what the footsteps of each of her teammates sounded like. 

Fitz walked with a little rhythm in his step, and although quiet, was always something she could catch some kind of a beat to. Though lately, they were rather slow and clunky. Coulson's footsteps were slow, because she was sure, he was listening. For abnormal noise. Glass shattering. Gunfire. Shouting. The sounds of panic and danger that they had all grown even more accustomed to hearing in the depreciating weeks following the return of Hydra. The footsteps of Trip and May were almost indistinguishable; they were heavy, taught, authoritative (even if the former was nothing like that). Simmons was like a fairy. Her toes were barely heard dancing along the floor, but Skye knew she wouldn't be hearing those anymore. The new members of the team that Coulson had recently brought on - that she was still leery of as strangers - had unidentified steps as of yet. But she would learn. Skye had taught herself that if she didn't recognize these patterns as someone came down the hall, she would hide or prepare to smash some face in the best way she knew how. 

And then came the echoing steps. Her eyes were open in a flash. It was the middle of the night, or at least she had thought – she couldn't quite remember having fallen asleep or when it was, she regarded sheepishly. 

Regardless, she had a nagging feeling that nobody should be awake. They came down the hall with a steady thud, and she began to focus, closing her eyes to the pitch blackness in the chilled bunker bedroom. 

She knew Coulson made nightly rounds through the place. But this didn't sound like Coulson. The heavy yet quick paced steps sounded like Trip's – or May's. Maybe Coulson had gotten them to look around in his place? 

It had been a long day and everyone was feeling downtrodden and exhausted, and Skye wondered why anyone was walking around at all. Almost certain it would be Trip, Skye climbed out of her bed, cringing at the squeaky howl that rolled out of the equally as downtrodden mattress beneath her. Her feet crept across the bitter floor as the steps were reaching their peak of loudness, and without stopping to wonder why, she opened the door. 

There was the scent and the flash of dark hair, a brush of the even cooler hallway air across her body as the perpetrator whirled around, startled at the opening of the door. Dark, focused, yet tired eyes; still fully dressed in mission attire. Her lips were a thin, straight line, as she stared through Skye momentarily, as if not registering what was happening. 

“Oh, hey, May.” Skye said, clearing her throat as she arched out of her doorway like some kind of snake coiled on the knob. “I wasn't sure who was there.” 

“You don't have to excuse yourself,” May responded, despondent in her exhaustion, a hint of what might have almost been kindness in her voice.

They stood there in intense silence a moment, until Skye once again summoned her voice to fill the gap. “Guess the big man's too tired to make his rounds, huh?” She teased, but the attempt didn't seem to lighten the gloom that seemed to have settled over May like an invisible blanket. 

“It's not that.” Came the response in that no-nonsense tone yet again. “I just can't sleep.”

Skye had learned more than ever in the passing weeks that May was more human than she had initially given the older woman credit for. In fact, they had grown quite close over the loss of their serpent teammate, and it was no longer odd to have exchanges with May that weren't work related. This just seemed to further emphasize this fact; even the great Cavalry couldn't sleep during stressful times. She walked the halls at night looking for the slumber that had abandoned her. Perhaps stared at the ceiling, too, alone in the dark, shivering beneath the covers. 

Skye could feel the tension returning to the air. Not the kind of tension they had previously exhibited – intolerance, uncertainty of one another – now it was something else. Skye knew she trusted May, and had quite grown to like her for all their differences that should have torn trenches between them. 

No, it wasn't a cold feeling of unwelcoming anymore – Skye had grown accustomed to May's frigid air, the same way she simply expected the snow to come in February. It was just part of her. But this tension perhaps resolved to tear them apart even more viciously than their differences, and Skye suddenly felt that, instead of standing in the hall staring each other down, maybe she should invite May inside. “Want to come in?” 

Skye read her face closely, noting a hint of surprise in May's dusky eyes, but it faded in an instant and she was left with the blank stare again. The one that always kept her guessing, tinted windows to the action happening inside her brain. “Well – ”

“Oh, c'monnnn. Bed's warm. I don't bite,” Skye urged, suddenly unsure exactly what she was vouching for. “Most of the time,” She followed up, playfully, and she thought she saw the briefest of smiles pass over her superior's features. 

May didn't respond, she simply walked through the doorway past Skye, and into the room. Once again catching the scent of May's hair, and feeling the brush of their thighs as she passed by sent a tingle up her spine. Her stomach did flips inside her lose tank top. The tension seemed to have increased ten fold, as she remained frozen looking out into the hallway. 

She could feel a heaviness in her gut, and prepared herself to shrug it off. She offered to have May sleep in her room. In her bed. Next to her. So what? Somehow, as she noticed for the first time that night that her knees were shaking, she realized her inner pep talk wasn't doing much for her. 

She turned around, fumbling for the knob, remembering May was in there behind her, probably crawling into bed in her work clothes without a second thought. Her functionality, Skye thought, often got the better of her, but she still believed strongly that it didn't take away from her as a person. 

Shifting her mind back to the present, Skye turned around, gripping the doorknob behind her in a clammy palm, when her eyes followed a streak of light that was playing from the hallway, sifting through what was left of the opening like some kind of eclipse. The yellow line of light pierced the darkness, climbing the rungs of May's defined spine as she pulled her jacket off over her head. 

Skye froze. She found her eyes wandering down, where she first discovered May's dark pants in a heap on the floor. Above that were two shapely ankles, on one a shimmering chain anklet, and her eyes sailed their way up smooth, strong inviting thighs and black panties. The dimples set in her lower back were almost delicate, and as the jacket came off and fell to the floor a loose t-shirt settled in its place to cover her back, having been hauled up by the force of removal. Her hair slightly tousled, May turned around then, facing Skye – but the younger girl saw no hint of sheepishness on her expression. Nothing that read discomfort, or apprehension. She simply dropped her clothing – or at least, most of it – in the room of her teammate without, it seemed, a second thought. 

Their eyes connected. Skye could feel the blood rising into her face, mortification summoning it like a snake charmer. She knew she was staring, and now May was staring back with that reptilian gaze. Skye swallowed, uncertain of what her next move would be. A witty trope? She opened her mouth, but found only cascades of dry sand inside, and so closed it without uttering a syllable. 

The tension that had been swirling between them had become a tornado. It whipped from May, back to Skye, like tennis – and then expanded as May began closing the gap between them.


	2. Chapter 2

The dark haired woman walked two steps, and then spoke. “You said the bed was warm,” She remarked, glancing from the shadowed mattress in the corner, then back to the brunette-in-the-headlights. “It's going to be cold if you stand in the doorway all night.” 

Skye laughed then. Same old May. Her quip had broken the spellbound paralysis Skye had fallen victim to. Things were just as before, and she began to remind herself this inside her mind, like a desperate mantra. Nothing has changed. “Right. I did say that, didn't I? I probably lied though.” She rambled, turning around to shut the door finally. “Nothing in this place i – ”

Then, there was that moment. A brief, fleeting moment that she would recall in the weeks to come with a stinging heat to her cheeks and an almost uncomfortable fluttering of butterflies, right from her chest to her groin. May was in front of her, inches away, even – Skye could feel the heat that reverberated off her skin with its own presence and touch. 

Skye began to stammer. “No-nothing in this place is, um...warm,” Except, she thought, May's hand on my lower back, and these waves of heat rolling off her body like a bank of sun baked sand. She gasped slightly, startled, as their bodies came together against the door, finally closing it completely with a satisfying click. 

May's hands were like two hot coals in the ice box of a room, and they stayed focused and content at her middle as her lips reached out for Skye's. The tension exploded, enveloping them both in its storm, and the moment slowly overtook Skye. 

Their lips met and reservations started to pass immediately. Skye suddenly understood that feeling that had been like sticky Brazilian air between them, and a taste of May's tongue seemed to have both allowed it to grow and remedied it at the same time. 

Hands grazed her belly button and moved past it. Skye could feel a rash of goosebumps break out over her skin at the touch of those hands that she somehow expected to be rougher, perhaps more calloused, for her many years in the industry. Skye herself, couldn't resist bringing out her own hands to touch, allowing her fingers to run across smooth thighs and set hips, to touch each rung of that spine that had so ignited the nights first flames of passion. 

Hands came into contact with her breasts. Skye let out a gasp at the sudden nudge of a thumb moving across her nipple, teasing it. The door was cold against her back, but the air was even colder against her bare chest as her shirt came sliding up, though not quite off her body. She couldn't see May's expression and knew hers couldn't be seen, and there was something both comforting and a little unnerving in that fact. 

The chill of the air made the warmness of May's hands even more heavenly as they returned to massage her breasts, and Skye let out a short groan at the contact. Gaining more courage herself, Skye brought her own hands up through the hanging fabric of the tee, and sent her fingers sprawling across the other woman's chest on the hunt for breasts. Instead, she found a bra, and, feeling bold, reached immediately behind her older teammate and released the clip. There was a small, soft sound as the intimate garment hit the floor, but it was not something to distract from the hushed little sound May emitted as Skye explored freely this newly released territory. 

Leaning in closer, Skye took hold of May's mouth again with her own, this time biting down solidly on the other woman's lip. May flinched back a little but then deepened further into the kiss, and when it broke, both fighting for breath, she whispered hotly, “I thought you said you didn't bite,” 

Skye chuckled, but the sound came out more like a breathy little sound she hadn't meant to make. May's lips returned to silence her and before long she felt the slender fingers of The Cavalry fumbling at the drawstring of her pyjama bottoms. Her stomach did a whole new kind of flip-flop as she found she was leaning into the gesture, wanting it more as May tugged away the knots. Skye knew there was at least three. 

“You don't really tie knots well, do you?” May whispered again, plowing through the feeble knots in the string that held her pants up. 

“No,” Skye replied, although finding that she thought the comment was a little unnecessary given the circumstances. “That's why there's like three, obviously.”

May didn't reply. It seemed she was back to donning that serious silence that overcame her whenever she was engrossed in a task. Skye had just never envisioned that she would be the same way in this kind of task. She was about to make a comment joking about May's work ethic, when she was silenced by the sliding of fabric down her thighs. Her pants made the same noise as May's bra had when they struck the floor; a soft, whisper of a landing. The cold air rushed in around her newly exposed skin, bringing back the goosebumps to her flesh that had not long been expunged.

“You know,” Skye began, fighting away her stammer as May kissed down her chest between her breasts and slowly moved down her stomach, “It might be warmer if we get into the, um...” Skye began to lose her words as May stooped lower, descending onto her knees, her lips parting with graceful kisses along her waist now. “Get into the, uhh...the...ahh...” 

May had moved on now to her inner thighs. Her lips were so soft it was all Skye could do to squirm under their gentle touch. Her skin seemed to having taken on a higher rate of sensitivity; every move that May made, every touch, and the tracing of her lips brought a whisper of ecstasy to wash over her being. 

Just as May was sliding the wet panties down Skye's legs, Skye discovered there was another stimulus at work. Beyond the feeling of the cold air, beyond her skin that had moved on from being frigid to burning up in waht felt like merely seconds...beyond the feeling of knowing what May's next move was going to be. There was something else. 

Skye realized, with a mixture of horror and excitement, that the disruption her mind was pinging in on was a pair of carefully solid feet moving down the hallway. Careful, slow steps. Coulson's steps. She could tell that May was picking up on them too, for she had froze in her position towards the floor. Her hands had ceased caressing the younger girls skin, her lips halted into what Skye knew without having to see, was a solid, emotionless line. 

The younger teammate thought this sudden passion was going to come to a halt as quickly as it had begun. She felt a sheepish disappointment and longing well up inside of her as the footsteps drew nearer, taking their time, perhaps savoring the quiet and lack of danger in such a time of discomfort and peril. Skye was certain May would back out now. Or perhaps, in what she considered a best case scenario, they would remain here, awkwardly arched against the door, until Coulson had safely passed out of the proximity. 

Almost not surprisingly, May was as unpredictable as ever. Slanting her head upwards to peer into the darkness for some glimpse of a face, the experienced agent spoke the only words she would say for the remainder of the night: “Don't scream.”

Skye heard the words, squinting down at the faceless voice, the same way May had stared upward. Suddenly she knew what was coming, as the footsteps were only gaining on their location. First, Skye felt May's hot breath, and then slowly the heat of her SO's mouth enveloped her entirely. 

Skye let out a shaky sigh, and slammed her mouth closed. The feeling was peaking. The adrenaline clamored through her veins like a noisy army as she could no longer quite focus on the proximity of the steps. 

May's tongue was soft as it slid inside her, teasing her clit with little flicks – Skye sincerely felt herself tipping over the edge with the pleasure that overcame her. She could feel the dampness of sweat on the nape of her neck, her hips grinding towards the sweet source of her euphoria, craving more. She reached her hand down and grabbed a hunk of the jet black hair into a fist, suppressing a moan quickly at the same time by clapping the other hand over her mouth and biting down hard on her own fingers. 

Damn, she found herself thinking, is May amazing at everything? The pain in her fingers from her teeth was far overshadowed by by the pleasure her teammate was causing to overtake her, and just as Skye was beginning to think she couldn't take anymore – it was happening – May suddenly stopped and picked herself up from where she had been stooped for several minutes. 

Skye had lost track of the footsteps but she wasn't about to make too much noise now, knowing their boss could be so close by. She felt further distracted now, by May's sudden removal of her hot mouth from that sweet space between her legs. And just as she was about to spill over the edge into what would possibly be the most amazing orgasm of her life. What happened?

The brunette didn't have time to wonder, for May used the opportunity of her own saliva to slide a finger delicately into Skye. This caught Skye off guard a little, causing her to gasp aloud inside the protection of her hand. May's body was pressed against hers again, tight to the door, as the older agent worked yet another finger inside of her, and then a third with seamless smoothness, instigating another soft cry of pleasure that Skye quickly smothered into the crook of May's neck. 

She could smell the other woman's sweat, light and delicate like baby powder, it infiltrated her nose as she pressed a hasty kiss to her shoulder. Her hips rocked to the rhythm of May's hand as it moved deep inside of her. This is it, she thought, clenching her hands onto May's shoulders and the back of her neck, to anything tangible as the sparks began to light behind her clenched eyelids. She lifted her leg and wrapped it around her superior's waist, widening her own opening and May's vantage point. The full and unforgettable rise to climax was reaching its breaking point as May's fingers played her like a well worn instrument, coaxing her closer to coming with every stroke of slender fingers deep inside. 

Sinking her teeth into May's shoulder, Skye couldn't take another second, and felt herself come apart from the feeling of May inside of her, her body spiraling fully into an ocean of pleasure. She seemed to see fireworks as the orgasm tore through her, rippling through her body like the calm of a lake disturbed. 

A small sound was emitted from May as Skye removed her teeth from that smooth shoulder, almost a groan, but perhaps more on the side of a hiss or harsh exhale. Skye hoped she hadn't broken the skin, but then again, she wasn't sure – the fit of passion had been too immense, she felt she had had to hold on for her life by any means necessary. 

Now, Skye simply felt spent – her limbs trembling with the glorification of aftershocks, the tremors in her knees from having withstood such a thing standing up, threatening to bring her to the floor. She felt like a limp noodle in May's arms, and it wasn't long before she heard the abrupt squeak and felt the mattress beneath her body. 

The older woman climbed in beside her, but she said nothing. Rolling over, her back to Skye, the brunette assumed she had fallen asleep quickly. It was quite the opposite for Skye herself, however, who lay there in the dark for hours, still feeling the other woman's caress. Her digging fingers. Her tongue. It sent shivers over her skin and through her spine like electric shocks whenever she so much as let her mind graze it.

Eventually she grew cold, and the whole experience seemed to be a fleeting dream. The only thing reinforcing that this event had occurred and was not some exaggerated fantasy, was the presence of the older agent still in her bed, surprisingly small curled on the mattress for all her formidable prowess. Skye curled into the other woman's back and hauled the blankets over her body, suddenly feeling her fatigue and her aches and pains as if they were ten extra pounds slathered on her frame. 

She knew the weeks ahead would be a struggle. Even so much as tomorrow could be a struggle – and so she decided to coerce herself into slumber, for rest, if not for anything else. 

May's breathing was soft, nothing more than a short huff in the quiet of the room. Her body was a hub of warmth, like sleeping with a water boiler. Skye wrapped her arms around May's waist and gently pulled the warm body towards her own, and if her movement had startled the other woman awake, she wouldn't know; for not long after she was wandering down the winding hallway of sleep, dreaming little, and forgetting about the day's unusual events. 

When she awoke, she would find her superior officer had fled the nest.


	3. Chapter 3

The bruise she had left was bad, but May had had worse. Not under the same circumstances, but a bruise was a bruise, no matter how you obtained it. 

She examined it in the morning, after exiting Skye's room early in discretion, before she knew even Coulson would be awake. She slipped into her own room, what clothes she had discarded during the night bundled in a knot under her arm. Her room was freezing, just like Skye's had been, and before long she was dressed in fresh attire, and examining the mouth shaped bruise embedded in her shoulder that wasn't completely covered by the black strap of her tank top. 

Skye hadn't broken the skin (and for that, May was thankful), but it was still a deep purple, and it throbbed incessantly, especially the more she poked at it. Running her fingers across it a final time before she vowed to leave it alone, she hissed at the stinging pain, and then gently laid her strap against it. 

May practiced some yoga then, as she was wont to do at five o'clock am – and she began to run her mind over the evening's events. What had happened? Or, rather, what had she let happen? What was she even doing going into Skye's bedroom in the middle of the night, anyway? 

She was used to scolding herself for little slip ups. It was part of the way she had allowed herself to gain so much wisdom, skill and control over her emotions. She had a handle on things because she knew that her slip ups were not without consequence. This, however, was not a minor mistake – this was, in terms of slip ups, the equivalent to falling down two flights of stairs. 

Feeling exasperated, she released a sigh and tried to concentrate her calm. The last time she had let this happen, with someone to whom she felt close, it had all turned around to blow up in her face like a perfectly placed kill switch. May didn't dare utter his name, let alone think it. She had been used. And they all had – but things had felt more personal to her than they would have if she had not allowed such a mistake. 

And here she was, stumbling and slipping yet again over the same wet floor, despite the warning signs that surrounded her. Tumbling down the same slope. She knew it wasn't that she equated Skye at all to him – nobody could ever master backstabbing as he had. Skye wouldn't betray them, of this she was certain. But then again, hadn't she also been unwavering certain of him? 

Sighing again and feeling an inability to tap into the reservoir of cool, calm that lay beneath her skin, May allowed a whispered curse to escape her lips. Suddenly, she wished she was anywhere but her room – preferably somewhere where there were punching bags ready for the beating. 

And speaking of punching, hadn't she offered to train Skye? In combat, and on the shooting range? To take the place of him as her S.O, even if the younger girl hadn't formally accepted the offer? How could she expect to do any sort of thing like that with dignity after last night? 

That question was answered quickly, however, because dignity simply didn't factor into the equation after all. Skye would be trained, because she needed to be. Without training, the younger agent – who had been a real rookie agent for all of a day before watching the walls fall around her – would surely perish in the hostility of this new world. May would pull back any physical or emotional reservations that had grown as a result of their contact, and train her anyway – for that was simply how she operated, especially under pressure.

May resumed her attempt at pumping relaxation into her muscles, and continued to mull over the days since SHIELD had dismantled. Things had been hectic. Watching their backs more than usual. Nursing the wound he had given them all both privately and publicly. Skye – or it seemed, at least to May – had jumped straight off his ship and into hers. 

What gaping wound had been left from the betrayal on a personal scale she had used as leverage to shut her emotions. But at the same time, May had felt the intensity growing between them for quite a while. The betrayal they felt in a way only the two of them understood, two women scorned by the same evil man in their hearts and bodies, had somehow brought them together, closer than they had ever been. 

May recalled the way Skye looked at her, even before all the drama and trauma. Respect with always that hint of curiosity, but behind it, something else lurked. Mischievousness? In fact, it was more than that. Almost deviousness. The act of undressing someone with only the eyes. 

That thought made May stop, walk across the room, and sit on her bed. She absentmindedly began to touch the bite mark. She had been around long enough – married once, and numerous past relationships besides. She had worked in this industry for a long time, among the hungry youth with their equally as starved stares. She could discern what a look meant – or what emotions were reflected in the glassy surface of her younger teammates eyes – with so much as a glance. Or maybe she was over thinking it.

Before, there had been a hint of playful lust in her demeanor. But after the fall of SHIELD, Skye had retreated into herself – and into May, as well. May had become her new teacher, someone to guide her, and if necessary, protect her against this schism that he opened like a bullet wound to their entire lives. 

Skye's eyes, though – they were readable, predictable. Especially last night. She recalled the way she had seen the brunette, just before the unexpected but perhaps much anticipated action had ensued. Her eyes had buried themselves into May like hot coals, and the tension instantly increased tenfold. It was the first time the older agent had seen a return of the lust from the SHIELD days, and something about it had felt so normal. So inviting, so comforting – that she took a bold leap into Skye's personal sphere. 

Her advances were not rejected – and luckily, for that would have made for an even more uncomfortable predicament than the one they were currently in. Rather, her moves were consumed as if with anticipation, and, despite Skye's stammering nervousness and inability to keep physical reactions under control, May was convinced that it was something the girl had considered before. In fact, she was sure of it. 

Perhaps, May began to think, as she lay down on her bed to doze, that now it was out of Skye's system. She had entered her sphere, undressed in front of her, and proceeded to do perhaps lewd things to her against a door. She had rendered Skye into a trembling mess by the end of the night – Coulson's nightly round not helping – and maybe now all her deviance, her curiosity, had come to a halt. She had gotten whatever it was, out of her system. Satisfaction. 

May felt a little calmer at this conjecture. The deed was done, and she had long since grown past the point of thinking regrets were productive. It was done, and perhaps it would be done for good now. They could, while not forget about it, move past it, and allow the incident to bring them closer in their trust of one another. 

With this last settling thought that had brought structure to some deep, hidden anxiety, May found herself drifting into a light slumber in the cold of her room, without a blanket. She didn't dream, and before long, Coulson rapped softly on her door and entered to wake her, as he had done the rest of his small team. 

~~

When Skye awoke the following morning, she was alone. The bed was still warm, and she was cocooned in blankets and sheets like some kind of insect. She threw them off. Eyes closed, just stirring in the darkness of the still windowless room, she listened for sounds. 

After a few moments of hearing nothing, Skye hauled herself up into a sitting position. May was gone, but she hadn't expected her to stay. It would have been unseemly should anyone have caught her in here, and she knew that. She could feel a stiffness in her body, but also a new rejuvenation – it had been quite some time since she'd had amazing sex like that. 

The thought that she had ever considered such a thing with Ward made her tense up, now. She became only more glad it was May, as she stretched her body out across the bed with a contended sigh. With a clamor somewhere outside her door, she became painfully aware of where she was and the circumstances. She leaped out of bed, sheepishly noting her lack of clothes, and hurried to dress herself as she heard footsteps coming down the hall. 

As she was hauling on panties in front of the door to ensure she could slam it, a knock sounded just behind her left ear, startling her. It was Coulson. “Skye? We meet in five.” 

“Alright, alright!” She responded, her voice somehow less groggy and sleep deprived than she'd expected as she jumped into a pair of pants. “I'll be ready!” 

Without a response, the footsteps receded down the hallway. He's so serious lately, she found herself thinking somewhat sourly, as she buttoned up her blouse with care not to miss one. 

After exiting her room, she went to the washroom, to wash her face and otherwise examine her complexion in the mirror. She splashed water on her face to remove a thin veil of oil that had assumed on her skin, and after drying with a towel she looked into her own face with more inspection. 

She had some dark circles under her eyes – her fatigue was showing. But then again, she thought, so was everyone's. It had been a rough few days, and she had some doubts that everyone she would face at the meeting had gotten a full, satisfying night's sleep. 

She noticed something else – a red spot on her lip. It looked like she got punched in the mouth and received a bloody lip as a parting present. In actuality, she knew it to be a spot that she had chewed into her own lip in an attempt to hold back when they had been in danger of being caught. She and...May. 

It was the first time she had taken it in since removing herself from her bed and moving into the sobering, intense atmosphere of their secret headquarters. Part of it still felt like some ridiculously dirty wet dream, but she knew it wasn't. Her clothes had been on this floor this morning to prove it had happened. 

Her clothes. That's right. She remembered with a sense of sheepishness that the most she had gotten off May had been a bra. The older woman had been intense in her movements. It was almost like clockwork. Skye quickly shrugged off that terminology, however – because for one thing, she never, ever wanted to consider that the act of getting in someone's pants was clockwork. But especially not for May, since she had recently abandoned the "May is a feeling-less robot whom Coulson unplugs at night and plugs in in the morning" theory.

It wasn't clockwork. But it was no joke that May had made quick, systematic work of the deed. Maybe she started to regret it half way through? Either way, it had happened incredibly fast, and she recalled the scene with strange clarity while feeling the blood rush to her face. 

Against the door, May had proceeded to tear her down and reduce her to jello. It happened like a series of camera flashes. First, the kiss; followed by hands, the loss of clothes (only on her part, she recalled with some sort of bitterness) and then it was a blur of colliding tongues, the sweet feeling of tongue and fingers inside her, the full on pleasure creeping up, and then it had been over. 

May, she began to realize, hadn't given her a chance to return the favor. After sweeping her off her feet into an almost disorienting orgasm, she brought her to the bed where she had promptly gone to sleep without another word or action. 

As she fled the washroom, fighting to keep a straight, calm face as she headed to rendezvous with the team, Skye continued to muse about May's odd behavior the night before. She had devoured Skye like a quick meal, and with her fast working skills had brought Skye down rather quickly. Why hadn't she let Skye take her to the same place she had?

Bitterness crept over her being, as if seeping up through the floor and catching onto her solid, quick steps. It was a mixture of jealousy and anguish, perhaps, as she imagined May and Ward together. She thought about the mountain of a man that Ward was – the trusted friend and teammate he pretended to be – and the disgusting backstabber that she regarded him as in the present. 

Then she thought about May. May, who had always seemed outside the social circle of the team. The last person anyone would have expected to carry on that kind of relationship. Potentially emotionally compromised to begin with. And now that she knew who Ward really was, it felt like an even deeper stab for even Skye herself. She thought about May giving herself up to him. She thought about small structured May, buckled down under all that muscle, and it completely infuriated her. 

She wondered if perhaps the deep, tender wound from that sort of contact with a man she had grown to scorn with all her being, was what held her back last night. Perhaps she was afraid to give her all to someone after that. Skye could sympathize – while she hadn't gone that far with Ward before the unveiling of his treachery, it had been something she had unfortunately thought about. She can't imagine how she would be feeling if the deed between them had been done the way it so painfully had with he and May.

The young agent in training arrived at the meeting, and exchanged a little wave with Trip. Fitz was not present, something which seemed to be becoming a usual occurrence. Everyone else had their eyes glued to Coulson, who stood in the middle of their little circle, aloof, admiring what was left of SHIELD before he began to speak a little about the day's tasks. 

May was across the way, and while she watched and listened to her superior's words, Skye couldn't help continuing to steal glances at the dark haired woman. She was clad in a dark tank top and equally as dark pants, her hands folded neatly behind her back, eyes trained on Coulson. 

Skye's eyes moved back and forth, when she willed it safe for her to do so without being noticed, and took in the little things about May that morning. She noted that her hair was tied neatly back into a low ponytail. Her eyes looked about as sleep deprived as Skye's own and everyone else's. And then Skye noticed the bite mark that peaked out from the tank top strap on her shoulder, and she struggled to not let herself flush too hard as the embarrassment of knowing it was caused by her flitted through her system. That's almost worse than the walk of shame, she thought, focusing willingly now to keep her eyes away from the other woman.

But as the meeting dragged on, Skye's courage came and went like the dropping and rising of her body temperature. She thought more about the previous night as her pupils danced back over to May, who had barely changed stances. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed that May had gotten to have all the fun last night. 

As she examined the woman's physique, it became more apparent to her that she would have liked very much to revel in the quiet whisper of more of her clothing striking the floor. How she found that she desired to experience May's taste on her tongue. How she would have liked to have been the one holding her body to her superior's, against the door; experiencing the convulsions of her form as she slid fingers inside that hot space. All the things that had been done to her and that she had reveled in the pleasure of, she wanted to do for May and experience with May.

The meeting ended abruptly, leaving Skye with little perception of what had gone on and all the perception in the world of her erratic heart beat and the knot her stomach as May walked on past her without so much as a word.

At least, she thought with some reservation as she twisted her head to watch the other woman walk off, if anyone asks I can just say I didn't sleep well. This, she considered, made a good excuse because it wasn't entirely untrue. 

The possibility of getting intimate with May also wasn't entirely ruled out, or so she suspected. If it happened once, the possibility of it happening again naturally seemed to skyrocket – unless one or both people for some reason had not enjoyed it. This was not a vibe she got from May, and she felt they had both thoroughly smothered in the perfect heat of the moment.

And if it could happen again, Skye perhaps had an opportunity to have her way with the Cavalry's chiseled body yet. If her reservations truly did lie where part of Skye suspected they did – among the remains of the person Ward had imitated – Skye wanted to sincerely abolish her fears and insecurities by whatever means necessary. Even if it meant she could never have May truly – the older woman had looked out for her enough in the past and present, and Skye felt she had to at least return that favor by reminding her that any mistake between Ward and herself was most definitely not her fault.

Satisfied with her own personal agenda, Skye went on to follow her professional orders – all the while keeping her ambitions on the back burner, her mission to gain what she had lost out on the previous night sitting on her mind, a silent motivator.


	4. Chapter 4

It had been a week. A week, and it hadn't happened again.

Skye, as she lay in her bed with the blankets tucked to her chin, stared into the endless blackness of her room in the direction of the ceiling, mulling over that fact. Her intimacy with May had not resumed quite as smoothly and seamlessly as she had anticipated, but that was not without trying on her part. 

In fact, she thought grimly, she had made several attempts to get herself alone with May. But it seemed her superior was having none of it. Could it be that she really had regrets about what happened and refused to consummate the event? 

Skye hadn't wanted to think at first that May's reservations had to do with her, but as the days crept along with no further action, it started to become more apparent. Even now, as she lay in her bed with the tail end of a cold shiver sliding along her skin, she tried to avoid convincing herself she had done something wrong. 

Skye listened for the steps as she lay, lost in her thoughts. Listened for the authoritative near stomp that characterized May and Trip, because despite trying, she still couldn't tell the two pairs of very different feet apart. The heavy step that had drawn her from her bed covers and into bliss a week ago.

Part of her wished to hear those steps, craved opening the door and seeing the somehow cold, somehow affectionate gaze of Melinda May on the other side. She knew it was weak, so she tried to resist it, but still she craved the warmth of the other woman's body like almost nothing else. But she couldn't summon her from sheer willpower. 

Rolling onto her stomach and resting her face at a comfortable angle on the pillow, Skye closed her eyes and thought about the week, trying to discern where she had gone wrong. 

The first attempt had been the day after their initial encounter, the day she had decided where she wanted to go on the sudden road she had taken with May. There were a lot of twists and turns, after all, with the kind of working relationship she wanted to pursue – she would have to navigate carefully. 

So her first plan of action, when she got an alone moment with May in the cargo hold of the Bus, was to accept the older woman's offer for training. 5am still sounded like the epitome of hell on a clock face, especially to get up and exercise – but if anything it had been, at least in her mind, the first rational step to gaining more private time with May. 

Skye remembered with a little tremor at her core the way May had looked at her when she had accepted the long standing offer, finally. The look in her eyes was unshakable, and it was a mixture of pride and love, noticeable even underneath the serious overtones. For a brief moment, Skye could see beyond the stone mask she brandished and she could see genuinely how happy she was to assist Skye, and how proud she was that the younger agent was still choosing to be dedicated to the field despite all that happened. 

The moment for certain had given her a case of the “warm fuzzies” when she thought about it now. And she had left it at that for the day, smothering in the glory she felt knowing that such an accomplished woman was proud of her. She waited until the next morning, during their first training session, to even contemplate bringing up anything. 

May was a lot tougher of a trainer than Ward had been. And while Skye herself believed that in the business of hand to hand combat, you had to be cruel to be kind – she perhaps wasn't ready for May's absolute cruelty. 

After rounds of sparring that left her body aching in more places than she could count, the two of them sat on a work bench in the garage that they were using as a makeshift gym. May had a towel about her neck and was drinking from a water bottle that crinkled under the pressure. Skye rested her elbows on her knees, head draping down, panting – she was certain that she would never get the better of May, almost as certain as she was that it was too damn early.

May offered the other half of the water bottle to Skye, and Skye accepted it without either woman having to utter any words. It took the ten seconds of drinking that she did to summon up enough careless courage to blurt out exactly what was on her mind. Or, at least half of it. “So – ” It began abrupt, as she laid the nearly empty bottle between them in the small space between her right thigh and May's left. “About the other night – ”

Simply the sentence had the effect on May, she recalled, that a bucket of ice water might have had on a skittish cat. The woman stood up, and completely disregarded what Skye had been about to delve into. She cut the meeting short with a simple, “Skye. Don't.” and then, “That's enough for today. We'll do this again tomorrow, and every day as necessary until you get it right.” 

The older agent didn't wait for a response, she headed for the garage door as Skye watched her – not exactly in disbelief, either. She had considered it might be harder than just casual conversation. But then, what would suffice? Further action? This brought with it new anxieties, for without conversation, Skye had no idea where May's limitations lay. Why or if she had kept herself from Skye on purpose that night, for instance. She would have to heavily analyze her next step, much more carefully than she had that one. 

As May exited, she brushed shoulders with Mack who was on his way in. The gangling man glanced over his shoulder a moment, and then turned his vision into the garage where his eyes clicked into place with the brunette's; who still sat staring unsatisfactorily after her superior. 

“What's with her?” He asked. 

Skye just looked at him helplessly, feeling like a hermit crab poking sheepishly out of a battered and exhausted shell, wondering what the hell he was doing awake at six in the morning anyway. 

Attempt number one, Skye had thought, had been about as successful as trying to mop a mud caked floor with a dry mop. No effect, and no use whatsoever. Remembering the moment filled her chest with a similar anguish that any awkward moment did when it was revisited, and she remembered how it had been two days before she tried anything of the sort again. 

Skye recalled with a certain foolishness that made her smile in the dark, the precision with which she had thought out her next move. It couldn't be during training, because May would dodge her attempts again like a dog startled of the Fourth of July fireworks. It couldn't be with any of their colleagues present, for obvious reasons. 

It had taken her some time to smooth out the bumps of where she could be sufficiently alone with May while neither of them could leave. Something didn't seem really possible, until of course she considered the most obvious place that sat under her nose the entire time: the cockpit. 

The Bus's cockpit was a solitary zone for May, and most people – including Skye herself – were aware of the feelings the pilot had about people interrupting this. But it had been known to happen on several occasions, so Skye figured, what's one more? 

So on the return flight from their field mission, Skye plopped down in the seat next to May in the cockpit. The other woman was still and stern, sporting her aviator sunglasses as usual when she flew, and she said not a word and had not a visible reaction when Skye cornered her. The younger brunette didn't much like thinking of it as cornering – but she couldn't really put it any other way logically.

That had been her plan, after all – corner May and get her to talk about her feelings. After all, wasn't that what people were always preaching? Don't bottle your feelings, talk about them, you'll feel better? But yet Skye had very rarely spoken to May about her feelings on anything other than the Ward situation, and she knew there were scars under the woman's smooth skin that ran deeper than him. 

So it was an emotional intervention – something had gone wrong if May didn't want to talk about what had gone on between them. And Skye wanted to get to the bottom of it, and know what it was and if possible, how it could be fixed. The last thing she wanted to be was another regret, another Ward, sitting heavy on May's mind.

No words were exchanged for the initial starting moments. Skye had still been trying to fathom what she was going to say exactly – regretting that she hadn't concentrated harder on the verbal component before she entered the cockpit. 

To her surprise, May was the first to speak. “Do you need something?” 

The words seemed a little more hostile than normal, and Skye was once again painfully aware of how disruptive she was to the other woman's solitude. She decided on a whim to make things quick, even if she wasn't sure if that was possible at this point. “We need to talk.” 

May paid her a small glance, but it was an acknowledgment, which Skye deemed as some kind of improvement. “You want an explanation for my behavior the other night.” The statement illustrated that perhaps May had been anticipating this conversation for some time, or at least since Skye had attempted to wedge them into it two days before. 

“Well, not really an explanation...” Skye began, beginning to feel more bold. Her plan seemed to be panning out nicely. “I just want to know. Like. What happens now? And why don't you want to talk about it?”

May's silence seemed to stuff the younger girl's confidence back inside of her. “I mean, it can't be that hard to have a conversation about it...SHIELD Academy sex ed must have been more awkward, right?” Skye joked. She was beginning to dislike more and more that she couldn't see May's eyes behind the shades, and had no cues about how her S.O was feeling besides her mouth which was a straight, expressionless line. 

“It was a moment of weakness,” May admitted, and in the silence that followed, Skye feared that could be all there was to her explanation. In that case, there would be more questions than answers about where their relationship was headed. But then she continued, much to the brunette's relief. “And as for what happens now, well. Nothing.” 

Skye stared at her and wondered if her horror was etched as deeply in her expression as it was in her stomach. “Nothing? You're just gonna – ” The term fuck & chuck rose to Skye's mind bleakly, but she wasn't about to use that. 

May turned to her now, and Skye could see her own reflection in the smokey surface of the aviators. “I'm sorry, Skye, this is my fault. We have to kill this now. It won't bring any good to us or the team.” Her tone was stern, serious. Definite.

Skye watched her turn her head back to focus on the skyline and the controls. “May. I disagree. I don't know about you, but – I've needed this for a long time, and, well, we could nurture this!” Skye spoke in near ramble, sure she had to get her feelings across but unsure of the particular vehicles for which to do it. “How could it be bad – ”

May had turned to look at her again. “The last time I let this happen – ...Look. It's not the time nor the place for us to start anything like that.”

“With Ward, it wasn't your – ”

“Skye – ”

“May, no, really – ”

Suddenly there was another voice. “I hope I'm not, err, interrupting something, ladies.” Trip had poked his head suddenly into the small, cloud submerged room, and glanced down at Skye. “But Coulson's looking for you, Skye. There's something he needs you to have a look into.”

“Tell A.C I'll be right there.” Skye responded with a smile, but her voice expressed some frustration. Trip glanced at May, jumped back to Skye with his trademark grin, and then exited without a further word. 

Both women had recognized that the time for their conversation had passed. They sat for a moment, grim in the silence, neither seeming to know what to say to end the short lived talk without seeming abrupt. And so, without arguing her point further, Skye lifted herself and flitted out of the cockpit with a feeling that was a mixture of relief and things unfinished. 

Reflecting upon the moment now, Skye didn't know what might have become of the conversation if the imperfectly timed interruption had held off or not happened at all. But she did know was that while she got a little further in her second attempt, the mysteries that surrounded May were still as thick as a fog bank.

She would make the attempt one last time. This time, it was action – all or nothing. Perhaps if she tried to initiate another encounter, May would give in to her at last – for she had heard it in the words. Any encounters between them would be bad for the team, bad for them, all bad and all because of Ward. The fact that May was holding back had been almost tangible to Skye in that moment. It was so real, the flare of tension. May was trying to protect her already hurt feelings, and now Skye needed to know what it would take for her to make her S.O realize that the last thing on Skye's list of priorities was to hurt her.

The next morning after the cockpit conversation, Skye stayed in bed. She didn't rise at ten minutes to five in the morning to get changed. She remained cloaked in the covers, almost shielding even her head from the dark and the cold, and she waited. May would have to come down to get her eventually when she didn't come to the garage on time. 

As much effort as was needed was packed into her scheme to look asleep. But in reality, Skye was wide awake in her cocoon, skin slightly chilled and tingling from the cold, as she waiting for the first beams of light to shatter the shade and announce the presence of May. 

In time, it did just that – the golden beam piercing through the shadows the way it had on that first night where she had invited May inside. The way the hard, florescent beams had danced along the other woman's lower back. The memory elicited a delicious little shiver, and Skye listened to the thud of the woman she'd been waiting for hammering across the floor. “Skye?” She asked to the semi-darkness, more gently than Skye had initially imagined when she had run the scenario over in her mind. Skye could almost feel her shadow falling onto her body as May stood directly beside the bed. “Skye.” She tried again, pushing a little harder this time with her tone, trying to rouse her sleepy trainee. 

The moment May took to turn the blankets down from the body of said pyjama clad trainee, was the moment Skye seized as hers. She leaped into action, taking the older agent completely by surprise. The factor of this preemptive strike that had been so unanticipated, was that it allowed Skye to jump on and playfully pin the other woman to the mattress with minimal effort. 

In the semi-darkness, Skye grinned down at her superior whose vibe seemed far from amused, held down under Skye's weight. May's expression was tough to make out, but Skye thought she could discern a bit of mischievousness in those dark eyes at least in that moment. If it had been there, the tiny spark was put out by the utter chill in her voice. “This is not what I came in here for.” 

Skye couldn't help but grin and admire the view below her, May sprawled out and looking a little flustered despite her usual cool. Skye could feel herself flushing the more she looked, just like before, and she slowly began to lower her head down to the other woman's. 

May opened her mouth as if to protest, but she only got a couple of words out. “We have a lot to go over – ” Skye's mouth consumed what was left of the sentence, enveloping May's mouth entirely. 

The contact of May's smooth tongue as she allowed herself to be kissed so willingly, brought back the burn of arousal across Skye's skin like a fever. It reminded her of that night, and only reiterated to her body how much she had been craving Melinda May ever since. 

Skye ran her hands up May's stomach, as the older woman leaned up slightly to deepen the kiss. The younger girl thought not of her success in the plan, but only of her craving to feel her skin on May's. Entirely, wholly this time. Her hands continued their smooth ascent across May's abdomen, and she slowed the procession just slightly as she pressed each finger into the firm but humbly sized mounds of May's breasts. This elicited a little sigh from May that Skye could detect even while she so intimately explored her mouth. Skye's hands moved to May's splayed arms on their sensual path, climbing the smooth, toned surface right to her hands; which Skye pressed gently into the mattress, lacing their fingers together. 

Everything in that brief moment had been overwhelming to Skye. She hadn't realized it until later, but the sudden seizing of control, the peak of adrenaline like a volcano at her core; straddling May's slender hips as she freely ate up the intimate kiss...it had all been a reckless, seductive and rewarding five minutes. The heat had rolled off of May in waves, and she got lost in the kiss, the moment – and suddenly found that she had taken May's place in exchange for her own. 

The flip had been quick and merciless, when Skye had least expected the situation to change so suddenly and drastically. May straddled her now, looking down on her with intensity as she sucked in breath more quickly than usual after breaking from their long winded kiss. The older woman was surprisingly light weight for all her power, sitting atop of Skye, and her expression was again unreadable, except for perhaps a breadth of annoyance. “I don't know what you're trying to accomplish,” She began, her voice a little above a whisper. “But we have a lot of training to do. You have five minutes to meet me at the garage.” 

With that she hopped from Skye's lap and retreated through the door without a second glance. 

Skye stared at the ceiling in the grey light, astonished – how had she messed it up that time? She had May in her grasp, and the other woman had responded so well to her touch. What had gone wrong? Or was May just far more defiant than Skye had perhaps given her credit for? 

Knitting her eyebrows together, Skye tried to ignore the arousal that still crawled all over her like a rash. May had participated just long enough to get her going, and then mercilessly ditched. Just like that. She was good.

She sat up, and the room spun around her – results of the sudden appearance and disappearance of sexual adrenaline, no doubt. Laying a hand over her eyes, Skye wondered how she would even be able to face May in the garage now, and that was only granted she managed to dress herself and get there in five minutes. 

She stood up, shakily, and threw the disheveled covers lazily over her bed. Part of her didn't want to show, but she knew she had to. The training was important to her lifestyle these days, but even besides that – while May was stubborn and defiant on her stance about their relations, Skye was even more determined now. 

Nobody's more stubborn than me, Skye thought, after dressing herself and heading to the garage. Her determination was a whole new fire, even if she had tried everything and didn't know exactly where to step next. Not even Melinda May. 

And that, of course, brought her to the present. She had made it to training on time and found that May's movements were just as quick as ever, perhaps a little more brutal than normal, though Skye wouldn't have taken May as the petty revenge type. So perhaps she was over thinking it.

Perhaps it had only been because Skye had been, that morning more than ever, incredibly aware of every subtle movement of May's. Every kick seemed ten times more swift. Her punches held more force. Her body was a tornado. 

She had gone through the day with no clarity of mind, and now she found herself lying in bed, stumped. How was she going to get through this? Simply getting over it didn't seem like it would stand much of a chance at this rate. That woman was like some kind of addictive drug, Skye knew.

Skye also, perhaps none-too-peculiarly, found she was worried about May in a way she hadn't been when this all began – sex really did bring people closer in more ways than just the physical. Whether her resistance was something born of fear and apprehension, or more derived from a deeper need for practicality and work conduct, Skye wanted to get the bottom of the situation. Deep within her, she knew the response from May that night had been too intense to have been unwanted. Even the morning Skye had successfully made her pounce – those five minutes may have been fifty percent to show her persistence in defying Skye, but what about the other half? 

The ceiling was dark, staring down at her. It was going to be a long night, and an even longer string of days to come. At this point, she thought she might give up – what was that saying? If you love something, let it go? If at first you don't succeed, try, try again? She shook her head as if to banish the thoughts. Those were stupid sayings, anyways.

She was on her own on this one, no amount of witty or insightful internet quotes she could Google would quell what she was feeling or even completely sum it up. But this much was clear – until the opportunity presented itself like the most perfectly wrapped gift, the way it had the first time, she should go with the breeze. Keep training and working on their friendship, and seeing how things chose to play out from there.

Her resolution didn't completely satisfy her, but it was enough to help her get her mind off the topic, at least for five minutes at a time while she tried effortlessly to wrangle some sleep for her grossly overtired form.


	5. Chapter 5

It had been weeks since the last time Skye had tried something. It had struck Melinda as odd, since Skye did not typically seem like the kind of girl to give up when she wanted something. While at the same time, it was satisfying that the girl was finally, after all these many months, learning to follow orders. But while the satisfaction had been there, the disappointment was not far behind – disappointment she knew she was not justified in feeling, for it was on her own jurisdiction that she claimed it had to end. 

And it had ended. For a few weeks. But suddenly, and strangely, with one conversation, Skye's pursuit seemed to back on in the thickest way yet. Training had gone south as soon as she had said it, and May wondered how she had managed to train with her seriously in the three days since.

May had been completely taken back when the words were uttered out of her junior's mouth. It was the last thing she had expected to hear – and at the same time, it seemed to be the last thing Skye herself had expected to say. She seemed just as surprised by the blunder – but as usual with the young hacker extraordinaire, May could not tell if she was serious or joking. 

Now, of course, she knew with some chagrin that the younger girl was incredibly serious about that tumble of strange words they had both felt some immediate confusion about. 

Confusion hadn't been all she felt, though, no – it was hard to deny that, even to herself in the deadpan silence of her room. Something had been there. Was it the spunky determination in her eyes? The look that read confidence and insecurity all at the same time? She knew it didn't make sense, but Skye in herself was a paradox. She looked as though she was both entirely dependent on and wholly frightened of what she had let slip. 

May had found herself slightly intrigued at the conjecture. Or maybe intrigued wasn't the right word. Aroused. That was more accurate, and while she was aware of its presence at the back of her mind, begging to be acknowledged, the experienced agent kept it behind bars for the time being. In the beginning, it had been easy to deny that her heart rate had adopted a quicker pace. Her mouth drained itself of moisture as she stared, bewildered yet stone faced, at the other girl. 

Closing her eyes, May attempted to remove the thoughts from her head – the thoughts that she could just walk down the hallway and be accepted into open arms, Skye's open arms and warm bed – and solicit sleep into her frame of mind.

After a few minutes of solid blackness in her mind, blocking her thoughts out like TV static, May's mind was right back on Skye. She had to admit, this is not how it had happened with him, her last blunder, and for that she was relieved. 

She didn't equate Skye and him – that much was already established and sorely clear. But she still felt pained by the abuse she now understood she had suffered at the hands of someone so cruel, deceptive, and manipulative. Somehow, she feared an opening of those wounds that she was just beginning to seal. 

She feared this opening with all her being, even if she knew it was Skye she was talking about. Doe eyed Skye. Always worried about others over herself Skye. Working hard to prove herself Skye. Honest to the point of humor Skye. The Skye she had known for so long. The Skye who would always stick around. One of few who had earned her trust. Skye. 

May sighed. She began to mull over that critical event three mornings ago, as much as she promised herself she wouldn't dwell on it. But some things, she knew, had to be combed through a dozen times before sense or a peaceful resolution could be established. 

It had been a regular morning. Skye had shown up to the garage, it was early, yet May was as usual, sober and awake. Skye was tired. May could tell by looking at her that something was torturing her enough at night to keep her from getting all the rest she needed.

The sparring that had commenced had been normal, except for Skye's weak jabs, her slow reflexes, and what seemed to be her absolute willingness to give in and let May defeat her. May, who was supposed to represent, at least in theory, an enemy who was trying to kill her. 

Maybe it was her own lack of sleep that had driven her to the point of rage. But whatever it was, May had felt her anger rising as the sparring went on, Skye's unusually weak and lazy display of action only spurring this on. 

After more than ten minutes of the hapless charade, May found a good opening – where Skye, none-too-surprisingly on that day, had failed to duck fast enough – and she grabbed her, tossing her mercilessly to the mats with an unusual show of force. 

Groaning, Skye began to pull herself up from her heap on the floor, when May strutted over to her and looked down upon her trainee with the true sternness of a martial arts master. “Why are you here?” The dark haired woman demanded as Skye stared up at her sheepishly. 

May crossed her arms, haughty, and held firm eye contact with Skye, waiting for some kind of answer, some kind of justification. 

Skye simply stared back, as if attempting to conjure up some kind of response. The one May got, however, was unsatisfactory. Pulling herself up on shaky knees, the training-battered brunette simply said: “I'm here to learn. Obviously.” 

May watched Skye rest her hands on her knees, catch her breath, all the while remaining in the judgmental stance of hands firmly crossed across her chest. Skye suddenly leaped out – though it wasn't much of a shock to her battle hardened S.O – and attempted to pull a fast one on May, an attempt that was quickly quieted by a fast side step on May's part that left Skye tumbling to the mats once again. 

“You sure? Because if you were here to learn, I figured you would pick up a few things.” It didn't cross May's mind that she was maybe being too harsh, because she didn't think that she was at the time. Skye was making foolish mistakes in their training, mistakes that could easily be dangerous or even fatal, depending on who she was fighting and what their goal was. 

“I am learning,” Skye said, rising again to her feet, this time a little easier, and turning to stare her superior in the face. “It might be a bit slow, but – ”

“Why are you here?” May repeated, her voice colder than she wanted it to be, but at the same time, desperate to get her point across. 

“So I'm having an off day,” Skye shrugged, somehow conjuring up the brazenness to keep her eye contact with May going strong. “Tomorrow – ”

“If I was an enemy right now, there would be no tomorrow for you.” May lectured, taking one step closer to the clearly exasperated trainee. “An off day in the field can have much bigger consequences –”

“I know, I know, don't underestimate your enemies and all that crap.” Skye sighed, seemingly fighting the urge to just plank down on the mats and rest her exhausted body. “I get it. I do. I really do. I'm just having a lot of trouble concentrating right now.” 

May emitted a little sigh herself. “If you're here to learn, you have to also learn to take what's bothering you and put it on the back burner.” May remembered she had tried to read Skye's expression in this moment, and for one of the first times since meeting her, had failed to discern exactly what it was she was thinking. “What is it going to take for you to concentrate? For you to take what I'm teaching you and really apply yourself?”

Skye's face had changed in that moment – though May, once again, couldn't tell in what direction it was heading. May's own thoughts were a speedy highway when she examined the younger woman's expression, locked in some kind of jeopardy. She could only imagine what kind of crazy chemical reaction was happening inside. 

Then it all came to a head. Why she couldn't sleep, what was distracting her – one sentence, and all had come into the light, blinding them both plainly in the face like the reflection of the sun on a shiny metal surface. “For you to let me do whatever I want to you.” Skye had stared into May's eyes, deeply and boldly probing, before rolling the last of the clear-as-day message off her tongue. “Even if it means I have to tie you up.” 

May had been entirely taken aback by the words. Shocked, really – but somehow not surprised. In the moment before Skye had uttered such a tension shattering sentence, May had pieced it together. She hadn't gotten over it or forgotten their former passion the way May had assumed she had. She had been harboring it. And it was destroying her.

Maybe it was Skye's condition that had prompted Melinda to say what she did next. Perhaps it was her own inner cockiness that had allowed something to come to the front line. It could have been simply a method to motivate Skye, or to relieve the almost painful sexual tension that was drawing them both in like a tightening noose – but whatever it was, suddenly, she was playing along. 

“The day you beat me in a match,” She began, her voice quiet but serious, not an ounce of shyness present, “is the day I'll let you tie me up and have your way with me. But until then.” 

Reflecting on it three days later, May had said it to get herself out of an awkward pinch. Of course, she had thought at the time – Skye could never best her. She would never be careless enough to let Skye's clumsy movements or flimsy punches get the better of her. So what was the harm? A prospect so delicious was just enough to peak the young girls attention. 

Sure, someday, Skye would be able to take her down. May was not so naive that she deemed anything entirely impossible. But she imagined it would be some time before Skye obtained such skills, though she had definitely seen some improvements since their training had begun weeks ago. By the time she had gained enough field skill to take down her S.O, she would have entirely moved on or forgotten. May was sure of it. 

But there was still that nagging thought, that annoying conjecture that she had said the exact same things about Skye after their first encounter. She'll forget about it. She'll move on. But had she? 

May knew the answer to that. Whatever her reason for playing along in Skye's schemes, May had since seen a sudden change in motivation for the younger girl. She was more energetic in the mornings, eager to train, and some mornings May would come to Skye's room to get her, only to found she had been up a half an hour before doing her own push ups, sit ups and squats. 

It was uncanny how something May wasn't even completely serious about had jump started Skye like a defibrillator. Or was she serious? She of course, couldn't deny that the thought of what she had promised Skye had a strong degree of appeal to herself as well. 

May had thought about Skye increasingly since the bet had been set, and with each passing night, the idea of surrendering herself completely to her younger teammate, allowing her to really have her way, only grew in absolute seduction. The thought of it sent a shiver up her spine, but it was an amazing, delicious shiver – and May knew that she was in too deep, something that didn't happen all too often. 

The main and most harrowing problem was her fear that agonizing over this flimsy agreement that May had agreed to out of partial amusement and partial whim, would be the thing that undid her. Her distracted mind, felled by Skye's premature fighting skills. She was going to have to focus even harder on training, assignments, and the tasks at hand – anything to keep from allowing the feeling that was slowly rising at her core like hot lava from capturing her completely. 

Rolling over, Melinda May determined once and for all that she had mulled over Skye enough. Nothing was going to happen. And while she knew she was a woman of her word and had to keep that reputation, if Skye wanted to play games, she'd play, and play hard.


	6. Chapter 6

It was a few weeks before it happened. Skye had trained harder than she had ever before – and for what, she sometimes found herself wondering? A shot at May? Something that might not even happen? Nothing had motivated her like this had. This possibly imaginary shot at getting close to May once again. Not becoming an agent, not the fall and quick regrouping of SHIELD, but this? 

She had questioned herself incessantly as the days pattered along, her training getting more intense both with and without May. Skye had stirred something within herself – and in May, clearly, if she had agreed – with those sudden words that she hadn't even been sure she wanted to say at the time. It had just appeared suddenly out of nowhere – perhaps it was the fatigue. She couldn't remember a time when she would have been so bold as to say something like that to Melinda May, of all people, with her hardship-honed eyes and the firm grip she had on all things with them. 

Intimidating seemed too light a word to describe her presence and her prowess, so no matter how many times she thought it, and how much of a natural born trouble maker and rule breaker she was, Skye never imagined herself saying something like that in any situation until she had already said it. And then, as with all things that with hindsight seemed embarrassing, there was no going back. 

But May had responded in a way she had never expected. That one mischievous streak of color that existed among the many shades of neutral, unreadable tones that composed her S.O had come out to play yet again. Something in the eyes, she thought, but then she would counteract and think it was maybe the lips. Or the way her body language changed. 

Come to think of it, she wasn't sure – but something was different. Even if she didn't know exactly what. May's words had been the proof – she had taken Skye's sentence, that was almost a challenge, and met it head on with a new objective of her own. 

The day you beat me in a match. Skye knew all students were bound to outwit their masters someday. It would only be a matter of time. 

And it happened. She had worked towards it – up long before sunrise, taking to any available punching bags, sit-ups, push-ups, squats, anything else she could think of to both get her trained and keep her awake and revitalized even at such horrid morning hours. The knowledge that all hope was not dead for what she knew she and May clearly, mutually shared for one another, had done wonders for her sleeping at night. 

She had pulled it off. May was in her prime, as usual. But Skye knew it would only take one slip – any kind of blunder, however small. A misstep. Blocking with her weaker side. A failed punch. She had to be quick, succinct, tactful and fully thinking to get one over on May, and just when futile attempt after futile attempt had her thinking she would never succeed, she had pinned May just as she had on the mattress weeks ago.

It had been a quick motion, just like it had then. One misstep was all it took. May rolling on one of those shapely ankles, a quick recovery – but it had been too late. Skye had seized her around the shoulders, capturing her body with the force of her growing muscles and bringing her under easily. Their bodies, wet with sweat, clapped against the surface of the mats as Skye came down on top of May, pinning her completely. She had been beat. 

Skye looked down at her, trying to fight the utter joy from surfacing to her expression. She met her goal – some unrestricted, uninterrupted time with May. But even beyond that, she had proven to herself and her superior that not only could she make goals and successfully reach them, but she was also more than capable of learning and becoming stronger. 

May just stared up at her, her gaze unreadable. Was she bursting with rage inside? Probably. But for a storm, her surface was as calm as a lake untouched by even a breeze. The solid, long stare, and the way she reached up her hand in that moment to brush a lock of upturned hair from Skye's face and tuck it behind her ear almost lovingly had spoke thousands of words to Skye alone. May was conceding defeat. Finally.

Skye had leaned down then – not bothering to check the premises for Mack or anyone else at the time, a fact which would make her cringe later when she recalled it – and pressed her lips solidly to Melinda's. The kiss was short lived, but it was sweet in its speed – and Skye found she was more entranced, perhaps even more spellbound by this woman in the moment. 

They moved quickly at the sound of foot steps, getting up onto their feet and shuffling towards towels and water which signaled the end of the session. Fitz entered the garage and began looking around for a tool, talking to himself – or “Simmons”– the entire while. 

It took him a few minutes to find what he was looking for, as it did with a lot of things regrettably, and Skye wondered if May would take off before she could bring up their deal. But she simply sat down on the bench, towel around her neck, head hanging down. She was waiting. Skye felt like she could relax, then, and took a seat beside her. 

In time, Fitz had come and gone again without acknowledging either of them at all – something they were beginning to grow somewhat used to as his unpleasant condition worsened. Yet another causality of Ward – another wound that would take an age to nurse, heal, and grow over.

When they were both sure he had gone, Skye heard May pipe up. 

“So,” She began, her voice the unwavering, strong yet quiet chord it always was. “Congratulations. You've earned some of my time. When do you want me to meet you?” 

Skye mulled it over momentarily. “You don't have to be so formal!” This was the first thing she did, and she leaned in a little closer and felt their clammy shoulders stick together. “I mean come on, May. I just totally kicked your butt.” She playfully jabbed the older woman in her upper arm in slow motion style a couple of times.

At this, Skye was surprised to see the rising of a smirk playing on the older woman's lips. “When and where, Skye?” No change in the tone.

Business as usual. Typical. “Err,” Skye continued to debate internally, because while she had always had high hopes of winning a match, she was never certain how likely it actually was. Until that moment, when she had done it and had to sculpt out the details of her winnings. “I don't know, May. Later. My room. Like ten pm?” 

May nodded. The movement was brisk, definite; they were both absorbing and taking into account that this was final. It was happening, and it would be tonight – Skye would finally have an opportunity to spend some much craved time with her beloved mentor. 

Shortly thereafter, May left the garage first and Skye not long behind her, and the day ground its gears into full motion. Evening had set upon the small but tight knit SHIELD faction before long, and Skye had spent the last few hours doing some meticulous – and futile, it seemed – research on Coulson's mystery alien writing that he seemed almost too intrigued by. After that she had spent a little of her time keeping Fitz company in the lab. Soon it was 9:45. 

Exiting the lab, she began moving hurriedly to her room. May would be there soon, and she was starting to feel the familiar chest tightness and stomach acidity that came hand in hand with doing something that flared up nerves. She would be here soon, and then the moment would be upon Skye – the moment to talk it out, to get to the bottom, to maybe take another step in understanding the enigma of May. 

Skye nudged her door open, finding it was already ajar an inch – sitting inside, on the mattress, Skye was shocked to find the Cavalry. May eyed her almost uncomfortably as Skye entered, but the brunette was equally as bewildered and naked feeling as soon as she crossed the threshold into the room. She closed the door behind her. Silence blew up in their faces like the quietest of atomic bombs. 

May was clad in a sports bra and yoga pants. Work out clothes. Skye inched across the room and sat close to her, enough that their thighs were touching. She wasn't sure what she'd say – but she opened her mouth and decided to just roll with whatever made itself known. That seemed to work for her in the past, after all. “So.” She said. “Now we talk.” 

May looked taken aback. “Talk?” 

“Yeah. I want to talk to you.” Skye watched her face, and by the crinkle of the other woman's eyebrows knitting together in confusion, she knew her point wasn't quite clear. “I said I want some of you time, to do whatever I want, if I beat you in a match. I beat you. Now I want to chat.” 

“About what?” 

“Well. How you're feeling about all this, and about Ward – ”

“Skye. You know. In my vocabulary, someone “having their way” with another person doesn't exactly constitute conversation.” Despite what she was saying, May's face was the epitome of calm as she continued. “And I don't want to talk. Not about him.” 

“But May...” Skye's voice trailed off a little, and she picked it up somewhere in the hollow silence. “Look, I...I just. I dunno. I want to know if that's what's bothering you. About me, or...I dunno. Us.”

“He has nothing to do with this.” May said firmly, with the utmost confidence. “He's a lowlife, Skye. And his name has no place nor power here. This is us, and he has nothing to do with it.” 

Skye stared at her. Something about May's eyes were pleading, in this moment, and Skye could see that she really did not want to talk about Ward, or about anything else, really. All Skye could think to say was, “are you sure? While I'll admit I definitely had other things in mind when I said I'd have my way with you, I don't want to do this if you don't want to or if you're, like, totally freaking out or something.” 

May smirked, in a way that told Skye maybe she wasn't ever “like totally freaking out”, and that she certainly wasn't at this moment. The lopsided almost smile had brought an ocean of reassurance to wash over Skye, even before the other woman had chosen to speak. “I'm sure. I want this.” 

Skye felt her heart beginning to race. I want this. Three words, and her body was reacting already. Reacting so much that she felt frozen in place. This is what she had wanted and pined over for so long, that core inside of her never feeling quite satisfied, her lust out of control – only to lose her cool in the moment. She needed a quip, and she needed one fast. “Well, I did say I wanted to tie you up. I don't see anything we can – ”

The younger girl and her mock seduction was silenced by the slithering snake of a tie being pulled out from beneath May's thigh. She could feel herself flushing at the implications – and she didn't even need to ask where May had gotten it for she remembered its impressive display on Coulson's suit the previous week. Well, she thought, more nervous than she would have expected or hoped for in the moment, here goes.


	7. Chapter 7

May turned around, offering towards Skye her slender back with the same defined spinal grooves and smoothness the first time, as well as her hands; fingers curled into loose balls, wrists crossed, waiting to be handcuffed. Skye straightened the tie out with ever so slightly trembling hands, and began to loop the delicate silk around May's wrists gently. May remained there, as silent and unswayed as a statue. 

A few minutes passed. The tension in the room was billowing, like funnels of purple clouds before a huge thunder shower. Skye could feel herself growing impatient with herself, and could even feel that same familiar and melting heat of arousal pouring from May's back. She too, was impatient, but Skye simply couldn't get the knot right. 

“Having trouble?” May asked, her voice creating ripples in the deeply silenced room. 

“A little, yeah. Can't get this stupid thing to tie right.” Skye chewed on her lip, fretting slightly, remembering the triple knots in her pajama pants that May had made a trope about on their last encounter together. “I suck at knots, remember? I was never a girl scout.” 

May's head bobbed, presumably to Skye a nod from her back on view. “I remember,” She said, before falling silent again. “Straighten the tie out. I'll walk you through it.” 

Skye couldn't escape the feeling that May had done something like this before, and the simple image of it sent a shiver up the younger girl's spine. And now she, after all this trials and trivialities, would get to experience that. Her increasingly filthy thoughts were interrupted by May's voice saying, “wait”, and then before the less experienced agent could quite register what was going on May was pulling her sports bra off over the top of her head. 

Watching in awe as the article was dropped carelessly from the bed to the floor, Skye's eyes zoned in on her smooth, and now bare, back. A small film of goosebumps had broken out over its surface, the slightest of disturbances in an otherwise flawless canvas of soft skin. 

“May – ” Skye began abruptly. “What are you – ”

“It'll be a bitch to take off once my hands are tied.” May stated matter of factly, as if it was the most simple thing in the world, not an ounce of bashfulness present in the tone that was the same as ever. Skye was amazed, and embarrassed, and aroused all at the same time, and could feel the furnace of these reacting emotions heating her skin intensely.

May's hands returned to their former position, curled behind her, and Skye listened well to the carefully put instructions her S.O offered on how to tie an effective handcuff knot. It was rather effortless, as well – though Skye had long ago learned that it was a talent of May's to make anything and everything look like a breeze. 

Before long, all noise had ceased in the room as the knot was complete, and Skye pulled it tighter and applied proper traction. Hesitantly, “is it too tight?”

“Tighter.” 

Skye adjusted the grip of the knot on the other woman's wrists, until she said “that's good” with the same air of absolute control that Skye could barely understand in her state of being barely able to hold herself together through the excitement surging through her body. Skye retreated her hands from the knot, and watched May test its tightness, and after she had seemed satisfied with the state of Coulson's tie, she began a backwards shuffle towards the head of the bed. 

May leaned back on the stack of pillows when she got there, arms hidden behind her half exposed form. She met Skye's eyes with some reservation, and Skye fought the urge to both stare forever and turn away quickly. This was perhaps the most vulnerable she would ever see the other woman – tied, splayed and on display. Her chiseled body, and smooth, captivating breasts that stared Skye in the face were already more than she had gotten on their first encounter. It left her feeling more than a little overwhelmed. 

The lights were on, she could see May's expression (there was at least a little color to her cheekbones, she was happy to note, a change from the normal) and May could see hers, she grappled with the intense urge to reach out and touch – things were so drastically different than the first time, and yet, she could hardly have expected to be able to replicate such an act of spontaneous lust and love as that had been.

Standing up, Skye took the few hesitant steps towards the light switch and plunged the room into a darkness as deep as the ocean floor. She could hardly stand to sit there, with May's confident yet shy gaze showering over her, despite how amazing and seductive it had been to really get a good look at her beautiful body. But Skye had determined, even in those brief moments of eager eyes grazing skin, that if she really wanted to do whatever she wanted to May, she would require the shield and anonymity of the blackness. 

Skye crawled on her hands and knees across the bed, heading towards the still leisurely reclining May. She moved in close to her and sat down with her legs crossed. Skye felt the heat of her body before they touched, and the first thing Skye made a point of finding was the other woman's lips. She locked hers into May's, sliding her tongue into the opening and freely exploring her mouth once more. This first touch ignited heavy sparks in her system, and she could feel her heart rate beginning to race as her hands made contact with May's core, and slid their way up to the breasts that she had previously been so utterly aching to handle. She slid over them, running her hands sensually on the sensitive skin, feeling the nipples pucker into hardness at the anticipated contact. 

Using one hand as a crutch, Skye situated her waist between May's legs, though still sitting up straight, and May arched herself upwards to capture them both in another deep kiss, wrapping her legs around Skye's middle. Skye could feel herself beginning to lose the timidity she had been feeling only just a few minutes ago, the faceless darkness once again doing wonders for both her confidence and her arousal, just as it had the first time. 

Moving her hands once again to May's exposed breasts, Skye played gently with the right nipple, rolling it between her thumb and forefinger, a pinching motion that elicited a sharp inhalation from May, followed by the slow release of breath that Skye could feel on her cheek as the kiss broke. 

Skye planted tender kisses along May's jawline, switching her attention to the left nipple where she worked it in the same motion, a movement that earned her a short lived, but nonetheless present, moan. The sound excited her, and she felt a familiar fluttering towards her groin. The heat of May's skin was apparent beneath Skye's lips as she progressed her soft kisses into the delicate alcove just below the woman's chin.

Her hands had strayed from the breasts, to explore other areas of May's body, like her shoulders and arms and back, and she tugged gently, needy, at May's hips as a gesture for her to move their bodies closer. May tightened her legs about Skye's waist, and using this as leverage, boosted herself until she was sitting on the younger woman's lap, seated comfortably on Skye's crossed legs. 

There was surprisingly less talking this time, Skye noted – perhaps because, she told herself, she had refrained from being a babbling idiot this time. She had initiated, it had been on her mind for weeks, and she was ready to engage in the moment to its fullest. May's body was as light as ever sitting on her, and she supported her with arms wrapped around her lower back to keep her from tumbling backwards from the lack of balance both sexual arousal and tied hands could bring. 

Skye kissed May some more, first on the lips and then on the neck, nipping at the sensitive skin there while sliding a hand down the back of the other woman's pants. May was firm, toned and satisfying to touch in all areas of her body, the younger woman was discovering, and with a little hesitation brought her line of gentle kisses down to her breasts. This surface was perhaps even smoother, and she ran her tongue over one of her nipples experimentally, testing the water, waiting for May's reaction. 

It was a good reaction, May's back arching at the sensation of the hot tongue on her breast, her unsteady breath, the increasing heat of her skin – this only prompting Skye further to suck at and let her teeth graze the hyper sensitive area, basking in the soft sound of May's moan that followed. 

Beginning to tug at the waistband of May's pants, Skye found herself craving the next step – May took the hint and let herself topple backwards onto the pillows once more, allowing Skye to move and get to work on sliding the black garment down her thighs. 

~

The air was cold, once Skye had made quick work of her pants. May listened to the clothing strike the floor as her younger protege chucked it, though she was surprised she could hear anything over the obnoxious drumming of her own heart hammering in her chest. 

She lay there now, clad only in panties, tied up and absolutely at the mercy of the girl she was training – what was she doing? The rational part of her had tried multiple times at this point to convince her there was something off-putting about what she was letting happen. But her body betrayed that small, overpowered rationality, as she responded to each of Skye's movements and to her touch without reservation or even having to think about it. 

In some ways, she couldn't believe something like this was even happening. Skye had beat her in a match. No matter what tone she used when she thought of it, it sounded wrong. But it had been a minor slip up on her part – a minor slip up with some interesting consequences. Or had it been an accident at all or rather, an intentional slip up? She wondered about it at times, but didn't spend too much time aching on the thought. For whether it was a true mistake, or one her subconscious jerked her into, both women were being sufficiently rewarded. 

She couldn't deny that Skye was pushing her towards the edge at a steady place. As eager as the younger woman might have been to strip off those pants, May was certain she had been in even deeper anticipation. In fact, she wanted all of Skye – she couldn't wait until all clothes had been stolen, even just her panties seeming like too much covered. She wanted to know Skye inside her, hanging over her and delivering her senselessly into a deep and body shredding orgasm.

This, she knew, would have to wait, but as she felt Skye's hands running up her thighs, she knew she would at least be well entertained until that time came. Skye's hands were all over her, moving from thighs to hips to stomach, and back down to thighs. May could feel her soft lips kissing lines along her defined hip bones, and she found her mind was a blur of racing, incompetent thoughts. 

Rationality vs desire. It was an all out battle waging in her mind, but it was clear which one was winning as she lifted her hips to allow the removal of the wet panties that had been clinging to her form. The cold air invaded again, but she was glad to see them go. Skye was wasting no time, that much was clear – and with every step further the younger woman took May realized more and more that there was no going back from this absolute high of emotions and animalistic, raw desire. 

Almost tentatively, it seemed, Skye ran fingers over the surface of May's exposed pussy, causing the older woman's breath to hitch in her lungs. She fingered the opening shallowly, scoping it out, waiting for the reaction that would follow without actually giving the satisfaction of penetration. May felt the moan rising in her and she hissed it out, wanting more, expecting more, but Skye had arched back on her haunches and was occupied doing something else. 

Squinting in the dark, May felt the rush of air against her face and the sound of an article of clothing hitting the floor. Slightly managing to make out her form even in the lack of visibility, she could see that Skye's shirt had vanished to the clothes graveyard on the side of the bed. May found herself smirking. “Warm?” 

“Uh, yeah. Just a little bit.” Was Skye's response, the dramatic emphasis and high dose of sarcasm in her voice causing May's smug smile to last a little longer. The girl's voice was overwhelmed, that was for certain, and a little shaken – May was sure the whole situation had her hot and bothered so to speak, and it in turn only hyped her own anticipation of what would come next. 

No more words were shared for the moment, but as Skye took hold of her superior's knees and spread her legs, neither woman figured they would need any to convey what they wanted, at least for a time. Skye went down on her effortlessly, and May found herself wishing her hands were unbound so she could grapple onto something in the throws of pleasure Skye's tongue was working her into. She felt like a knot coming undone; Skye's mouth was hot and her tongue was skilled, eating away at her until she felt there would be nothing left but pure passion. 

Toes curling at the sensation, May struggled to keep her voice down. It had been some time since she had been so enraptured by another person, so twisted about their finger that every movement nudged out of her a pure, uncut reaction. She whispered Skye's name in the still of the darkness, and clawed at her own hands, strapped behind her as they were. They were getting to the end of the line, she was going to come, if Skye didn't stop – but then she did cease, abruptly, rising away from May who ached for more in a way that was almost unfamiliar. 

Perhaps, she thought, this is what you get when you mix sex with the utmost of trust. Because while she had had plenty of sex in her lifetime, she did not give trust often.

Skye was breathing hard, just like May, and the two women remained still for a minute or two, collecting themselves and whatever breath was left in the room that seemed to be becoming airless. “You almost had me,” May said, finding herself a little aloof to the reasons why she would stop when she had been so close, so desperately, explosively close to climax. 

“I know,” Skye responded, and this caught Melinda off guard a little. Maybe, she thought, this kid knows what she's doing more than I gave her credit for. “That's why I stopped. There's something else I want to try.” 

May felt Skye's weight lift off the bed, and suddenly she was crossing the room. “And you did say,” The younger woman continued, prattling on in a playfully mischievous tone, “that I could do whatever I want, right?” 

Sighing, the older agent wondered what Skye had up her sleeve this time. Knowing the girl as well as she did, it could be any number of things. May listened and heard her fumbling through a drawer in the desk on the other side of the room. Then, an agitated sigh. 

“Maybe if you kept your room cleaner,” May commented, “you'd be able to find things when you need them.” Her tone was not entirely authoritative, but Skye still snorted a laugh in the corner. 

“Why bother, May?” She asked in the same uppity tone. “You know that'll never happen. Besides, I know it's in here...” 

What was “it” May wondered? Although she had a pretty solid idea of what exactly she could be looking for at a time like this. She didn't peg Skye as the type to own sex toys – and especially keep them around here – but she would admit, at least to herself, that the idea was an enticing one.

Melinda lay there for a few more minutes, listening to Skye as she shuffled through various drawers, and moved objects, having gotten her cell phone to use the flashlight function. The tension in the room that had formerly begun to dissipate, was building itself back up steadily, brick by brick – and just when May began to think she couldn't stand to wait another minute, the small circle of light in the corner went out, and Skye was crossing back over to the bed voicing an exasperated “finally!” that May was sure applied to them both.

“It's been a while since I've, err, used it. So it took me a bit to find it. Sorry.” It was a vibrator – a rather large one, at that, smooth and phallic shaped, of course. 

May had expected as such, and the conjecture was certainly appealing, although Skye seemed to have readopted some timidity. Wondering if she could shock it from her system, May opened her mouth and expressed the exact words she was sure her trainee wanted to hear, “let's try it out, then.”


	8. Chapter 8

Skye had been a little surprised at first that she had gone for it. The idea in and of itself, she thought, was a bit thoughtless on her part – but she knew from personal experience that it had always seemed to do the job better than her fingers ever had, and that was simply what she wanted for May. 

Despite the invitation, Skye still found herself a little nervous – after all, she had never used something like this on another woman before. What if she did something wrong? But however shaken and however contemplative she was of this step, May's shapely legs clung to her back and drew her closer, and she coaxed herself into making the appropriate move.

The toy slid seamlessly inside May – and, Skye thought, coaxed the most delicious sound to come from her yet. The older woman took the length of the smooth object, and Skye could feel her own desire riot inside, looking for an escape route, suddenly wishing her S.O's hands were unbound. 

Skye didn't use the vibration function just yet, and for the time being, made love to May in slow strokes, using her other hand to run her fingers over the other woman's smooth skin, her breasts and stomach. In time the strokes grew quicker, and May's responses were far more edgy and vocal. Each time the vibrator entered her and retracted she groaned her satisfaction, sometimes Skye's name mixed among the blind mewls – something which gave the young agent a rush like no other. 

She had never imagined herself ever being in this position, and yet she had, many times. The illusion that May was always serious, stoic, and prickly shattered as Skye coaxed her closer to the top, and it was growing increasingly worth the care and time she had taken to get where she was. The sharp inhalations, the moans, all egged Skye on further as she grappled onto the back of May's neck, damp with sweat, the eager trainee leaning in to nibble on her superior's earlobe teasingly. 

After an expanse of time in which Skye indulged in the deep and endless pleasuring of her boss, it seemed that Melinda might give in to Skye completely soon, and merely the idea had the younger agent jittery and almost indecently aroused. When she felt May was getting close, Skye flipped on the vibration, which brought them both to new heights. It didn't take long for her superior to fall crumbling down after that, and she came, hissing out shaky breath and thrusting her hips towards Skye in a last burst of passion. 

The butterflies that were occupying the zone between Skye's groin and abdomen had only picked up the pace through May's heart-stopping, sexy orgasm, and she was beginning to note that having May tied up might not have been entirely the best plan. She watched her colleague's shadowed form on the bed as she heaved for breath, the silenced toy laying motionless on the bed. 

As May recovered, Skye mulled over what to do next. Heat had risen like a flash fire to her face, as she thought about telling the woman opposite her that she wanted her hands untied so that she could have the same thing done to herself, that she was walking on egg shells, that she needed to be finished off as well as she had finished May off – but what to say?

“May...” Skye began, starting to absent-mindedly fumble at the button of her jeans. “I can, you know, untie you now if you want.”

May seemed to still be catching her breath. “You're the one who wanted this, Skye.” Her tone was teasing now, and brisk – she was going to make Skye suffer a little for tying her up in the first place, and Skye knew it, as the burning sensation in her cheeks – and elsewhere on her body – only rose in temperature. 

“Well, I know, but...” She was hesitating, and she could tell even in the blackness that May was being smug about it. The brunette was suddenly more happy than ever that they were sitting in the pitch darkness. 

“You can manage to finish yourself off, I'm sure.” 

Skye was a mixture of horrified and aroused. Finish herself off? Masturbate in front of May? The idea in itself seemed absurd, but it had a certain edge of appeal that struck her in all the right places, like lighting a match off her spine. Suddenly she found herself getting up off the bed as May once again wiggled toward the headboard and the pillows still piled there. Perhaps a little too enthusiastically, Skye took to her jeans and started to pull them down her hips. In the silence, she knew May was watching for anything she could capture of her form in the dark. The thought of her digging, searching eyes shocked her system with excitement.

Skye got her pants into a heap on the floor, among May's clothes, unclipped her own bra and found herself hesitating a little as she ran her fingers along the lacy waistband of her panties. Was she really about to do this? Swallowing a lump that she felt in the moment to be comprised of some of her own pride, she pulled them off and let them slide down her legs. No going back now. 

Skye never imagined she would find herself in this situation – standing completely nude in a room with May sitting only a meter away. Never in her wildest dreams – but then it had happened, spontaneously, against a door of all places, and she had been longing for more ever since. So despite her nervousness that she now felt leaking from her pores, she knew it was time to enjoy something that she had always wanted. Free and uninterrupted time to feel everything it was possible to feel with May.

Achingly hesitant but craving satisfaction harder and swifter than her hesitance could affect her, Skye sat down on the bed. She could only slightly make out May's form at the head of the bed, her bare skin looking light against the blackness of the room, her expression unreadable. Spectating. Something about the stare only aroused Skye more. Her skin had broken into goosebumps – she had to take action or risk losing her mind in the depth of what her body was now fighting for. 

Facing where she knew May sat, Skye slowly began to spread her legs and grappled for the toy with one of her hands, supporting herself by leaning on the other one. Her back arched at the familiar feeling of the vibrator nudging against her opening and she released a shaky sigh. She wondered tentatively how May was reacting as she applied a little pressure to the toy, feeling herself release a fully unreserved moan at the sensation such a small touch gave her. She was overwhelmed with desire, to the point where even the slightest of touches felt as though they had the power to rip her apart.

Skye sunk the toy inside slowly, releasing some of the sexual tension that had her in its firm grasp. The feeling itself produced a whirlpool of a reaction inside her, the butterfly feeling skyrocketing as she began to stroke knowing that May was right across from her. The thought in itself was almost too much to bear, and she gasped out May's name as she began to pick up the pace, just as she had so many times previous to the fall of SHIELD, alone in the dark of her room. 

Slamming her eyes shut and drowning in the bliss she was bringing to herself, that was only heightened by the knowledge that she wasn't alone, Skye suddenly felt a shift in the bed and felt heat surrounding her, coming into close contact with her now perspiring skin. When she opened her eyes she found May had gotten much closer and had none-too-surprisingly, perhaps, wiggled her way out of the tie restraint.

The close proximity her advantage, Skye felt a quick shock of adrenaline peaking and leaned out to latch onto May's lips with her own. The way May's tongue ran itself so sensually slow along her own drove Skye absolutely wild.

At an impatient nudge of May's arm, Skye moved her hand away from the toy that was still deep inside her and leaned her body back entirely so that she was lying flat on the bed. The pleasure practically throbbing with a need to be satisfied and acknowledged, Skye's throws of passion only increased to a hot degree when May picked up where she had left off, sliding the toy in quick, methodical, delicious strokes. Skye answered with hard moans that May attempted to soften and silence with kisses. Skye felt much more free and blissful than she had the first time, too far gone to even attempt to silence herself. So she groaned into May's frequent kisses, welcoming with some uncontrollable feeling of going under the orgasm that took her body over not long afterwards, shaking her to her core. The absolute aggressiveness of coming, like last time, left her practically airless and feeling like her limbs had become limp strings of elastic. 

The toy was pushed aside and May settled down on top of Skye, resting her head on the younger girl's chest as the smooth skinned body beneath her finished convulsing. Breathing heavy and fast, Skye fumbled her hands up May's body, climbing her lower back up to her shoulders, until she reached the dark head of hair in which she buried her fingers. “Wow.” Was all she managed to squeak out when she had gathered enough breath to attempt to speak. 

Skye could feel the agent on top of her chuckle a little, and she found it was impossible to peel her own smile from her features. Post sex bliss had always been one of her favorite times with past lovers, but with May something about it felt so much more special. Something about it was so dangerously new, so fresh and perfect, that she truly believed nothing could ruin the moment. 

The women lay there for a long time, saying nothing, entangled in one another's arms. Skye played absent-mindedly with May's hair, knowing the room was cold but feeling content and warm with the other woman's embrace surrounding her. Her fatigue was quickly catching up with her – as May's already had, it seemed, because she remembered the quiet huffs of breathing from the first night they had shared a bed. Quiet, almost invisible breathing, but something about it spoke volumes from close up that just increased the blanket of security Skye felt while in the presence of the woman. For the first time in a long time, she felt safe, secure, and not worried about the future – and while that was surely not to last long in this industry, Skye was content to lather herself in it for the time being as she surrendered herself to sleep tangled up in the bliss of being close to her lover. 

At some point during the night, the women awoke, and, found they had fallen asleep together outside the covers on the wrong end of the bed. In half asleep states, they slid up the surface of the bed, turned down the covers and simply picked up where they left off slumbering together in the cold silence of Skye's room.


	9. Chapter 9

In the morning, Skye couldn't remember much about shuffling about in the middle of the night, but there was a pillow under her head and blankets over her body so, she supposed, that was all that really mattered. That, and May's head under her chin, face tucked into the crook of her neck and strong arm draped around her waist. 

There was something innately satisfying about being able to hold the older woman in her arms, and Skye kept both of hers wrapped firmly around May's back and shoulders. She ran hands over smooth skin, eyes closed but mind awake, wondering what time it was. She lay like that for a long time, not daring to wake May and simply enjoying their closeness and the tender feelings that it arose in her. It could have been minutes, or even an hour, but after a time Skye was uncertain of had passed, May began to stir.

Her head nudged up a little, touching off Skye's chin, and the woman emitted a little groaning sound as she shifted her body slightly. Head tucked perhaps further towards Skye's shoulder, the younger brunette felt the flutter of an eyelash against her neck as one of May's arms jutted out straight and stretched. In time it settled back to its warm nest upon Skye's waist and she could feel the brush of the older woman's exhaled sigh against her skin. 

“You know,” Skye began, detecting the mischievousness in her own voice even at god knows what hour it was. “The Cavalry is a lot more cuddly than I would've expected.” 

Spikes of negativity peaked in May's voice almost immediately, a defense mechanism, as she pulled her face out from where it was tucked to squint at her junior in the darkness. “Don't ever call me that.” The words were raw, harsh, annoyed – Skye had heard them many times before. 

“I know,” Skye said, gentle, hoping her attempt to soften the reaction with her words was effective. She had known, somewhere inside, that saying it would be a bad idea - but the potential that things would go sour usually did not have enough power to stop her when she gained momentum. Feeling a little guilty, Skye said, “I was just messing with you," and leaned out then to drop a gentle kiss on the corner of May's mouth. 

May, somewhat bitterly, it seemed, returned to her former position curled into Skye, and the younger girl resumed drawing patterns on the other woman's back with her fingertips. “We should probably get up, soon.” May spoke then, her voice a lot smoother and quieter than it had been when responding to Skye's quip. It was barely above a whisper, a gentle sound of fatigue and relaxation together. 

Skye groaned. “I wish we could just stay here all day.” Wishful thinking in the extreme, she knew – for it was something she had had to leave behind when choosing to go with SHIELD in the first place. SHIELD agents, despite experiencing morning-after bliss and utter happiness, simply did not stay in bed all day. And, she figured May would agree with her, it would be much easier to get up now than to have someone (namely Coulson) go to get them and find them together. 

“I know,” May replied, holding the younger woman a little tighter in that moment. “But we don't have that luxury.” 

“You can say that again,” Skye sighed, a twinge of annoyance in her words. “It's all work and no play around here.” 

May's hand reached up and tenderly touched the back of her neck, massaging the skin. “You played enough last night. Come on. We should get to training.” Much to Skye's reluctance, May began pulling herself to a sitting position and Skye followed suit. She's unrelenting, Skye found herself thinking, a hint of bitterness creeping its way into her satisfied mellowness – at least until May leaned over and planted the most sweet and soft of kisses on her lips. Any negativity simply melted away as if Skye was an ice sculpture, and May's lips were a hot coal. 

Switching on the light from her spot on the bed, Skye rocketed her arms into the air and indulged in a satisfied stretch as May crossed the room, still void of all clothes, and captured Skye's bathrobe off the hook on the wall behind the door. She slipped it on over her shoulders, seeming aware all the time how Skye's hungry stare nipped at her, and tied it around her waist. “I'll bring this back.” She said then, and stooped down and began gathering her clothes off the floor. 

Skye sat there and watched her, seemingly having lost all her timidity as she didn't even bother attempting to cover herself up. She smiled at May's messy, birds nest hair and busy body attitude even in the morning. The pink fuzzy robe looked a little silly on her. When she had all her clothes bundled up under her arm, May placed her hand on the knob and turned around to look at Skye. 

Skye felt herself flushing, heat rushing to her face at a rapid pace, as she noted May's unchanging expression yet wandering eyes, traveling across her exposed skin and taking in a satisfactory glance. Then, business as usual: “Be ready in ten. I'll come back to get you.” 

And with that, she was gone, just like the coming of the cold air as the door opened and closed behind her. Skye took her time cleaning up her clothes and tossing them into the hamper, and redressing herself in fresh, clean attire. She tied her hair back using the elastic she kept around her wrist and lazily made her bed by simply tossing the covers over the mattress. 

She thought about last night fleetingly – just like the first time, it felt like a dream, but she knew it wasn't. Not because of real physical evidence this time, like the missing robe, but because of how she felt. She had made getting close to May a goal – and somehow, she had gotten lost and more enraptured in the amazing woman that was Melinda May somewhere along the way. 

She felt more in her prime than she had in a long time – rejuvenated, satisfied and happy in knowing that May's reservations were not about her. She hadn't done anything wrong and May had wanted it just as much as she, despite the dodging and denial Skye had had to work her way through to get to this place. It had all been worth it, she deemed – and she had slept better and now felt better than she had in a long time. 

May opened the door after a few moments, and extended a hand forward with the robe that Skye took and hung up where it had been previously. Then they both exited the room and started down the empty hallway. Nobody else seemed to be awake, as nothing stirred – and so, boldly, Skye reached out an arm to wrap around May's waist to pull them close as they walked, and much to her surprise the older agent didn't pull away until they entered the mouth of the garage.


	10. Chapter 10

So the two women trained, as per usual – and the day pattered away in its usual slowness. May didn't think much about the night before – at least until she was alone in the silence of the cockpit, on the way home from the day's long hours on the field. Finally. Silence. Peace of mind, and thoughts. 

Things hadn't seemed to change between them. And with that, one of May's biggest fears had been abolished. If anything, what had gone on between them had only brought them closer and allowed May to trust her more. And trust was not something that came easily for the stoic woman. 

Training did not change – and while Skye didn't get the best of her again, May could still see definite improvements in her skill and relished in the fact that she could only improve. She would be a fine agent – and things would, perhaps, stay this way for a long time. Solidarity. True, singular solid ground that May could stand on – something which had been absent for quite some time in her life. 

They worked together just fine, just as before. And best of all, Skye hadn't left, betrayed or abandoned her or anyone. Just as believed, and May's faith remained unwavering. 

May found that she was thinking of the negative aspects of what she was doing less and less. They seemed to be draining from her mind – Skye had the sort of imprint on her that softened her rigidity. It had been quite some time since she had felt this healthy, and – dare she even think it – happy. Sometimes she was afraid even so much as admitting that to herself would cause it to be ripped away. 

Fleetingly, she thought of Andrew. She had been happy then – but that was years ago. A schism had opened between the two of them since the divorce, something most split couples faced. And even towards the marriage's end, she couldn't remember being quite as happy as she was in just these last few weeks with Skye. But other sinister factors had played into that than she would allow her mind to touch on.

Something about that brought the familiar, bitter taste of guilt – and she shook it away from her mind. Skye's lighthearted nature had done wonders for her own stamina and stability. While she didn't feel what most people would perhaps categorize as “normal”, and perhaps never would, she certainly hadn't realized how truly lonely she had been before Skye. The dark, never-ending pit that stretched through the time between Andrew to Skye.

Staring out into the dark clouds that surrounded her, May removed her aviators and placed them aside, nestling her head back on the seat. It was going to be a long flight home. And what was home, exactly? A temporary base? Flimsy security. May began to wonder about how long they were going to be able to hold the charade of SHIELD hidden in the darkness from a world that feared them. What was going to come next? Surely, challenges would come one after another. Would she and Skye survive through the trials that were going to come flying their way faster and more deadly than a rain of bullets? Or would they simply crumble the way she and Ward had? 

May was just cringing at the thought of him when she heard action behind her. Someone was coming into the cockpit. Suddenly and inexplicably, May could feel her heart beginning to race. It was an unfamiliar feeling to the experienced agent, and she cleared her throat absent-mindedly. 

“Hey, May.” 

Skye. As if, May thought, it could be anyone else. “Hey.” Came the woman's simple reply, not removing her tired eyes from the view of the clouds. Despite her outward calm, May found she felt strangely elated in Skye's presence. Or perhaps, she began to speculate, it wasn't all that strange after all. 

“I can't sleep.” Skye plopped down in the other seat, hair messed, pyjamas on and looking like very much the sleep deprived agent. “Everyone else is like. Snoring. I don't know how they do it.” 

“Sometimes it's hard to wind down after a long day. Give yourself some time.” Melinda was cool and logical, as with all things. 

“I gave myself like an hour. Tossing and turning gets really old.” Skye's voice proved her strain, and May couldn't help but smile a little. A whole hour. Instead of poking fun, however, she listened to Skye ramble on. “I got up and got water, and hoped Fitz would be in the lab or something but nobody's around. I didn't want to bother you in here – ”

“You're not bothering me, Skye.” 

Skye was silent. May didn't look at her. Perhaps she had answered too quickly? Maybe Skye was staring at her in awe. Melinda waited, feeling the poke of the other girl's eyes, wanting the younger agent to keep on talking – listening was much more of her strong suit than conversing, after all. 

“Oh. Okay. Good. It's just that – ...actually, nevermind. What about you, May? Aren't you tired? It's kinda unfair that you have to sit up here and work the Bus while everyone else passes out.” And continue, she did – May had no doubts that she would if the silence prevailed long enough. 

“I don't mind.” May replied. “Flying is relaxing.” 

“Looks like it,” Skye said, getting to her feet again and walking the small expanse of space to hover over May's position. “You're not even really doing anything.” 

May gave her a stern look that brought a laugh to the surface of Skye's lips. May just loved her smile. “Well? If you really are doing stuff. Tell me. What's that for?” Skye pointed a slender finger at one of the various controls, and May explained its usage. 

They continued like this for a while, Skye pointing at – and sometimes getting duly scolded for touching – a variety of levers and buttons that May would then give a solid explanation for.

When she finally had her fill, it seemed, Skye toppled into May's lap in a gesture that May somehow wasn't expecting. Skye curled her legs up and rested her head in the crook of May's neck, and Melinda only felt her head race a little more achingly. 

“You know, May,” The junior began, not moving from her position much, except to lean up and plant a kiss on her cheek mid sentence. “I think “boring” was the word you were looking for. Not relaxing.” 

May smiled at this, and chuckled a little. “Wait until I have to land her. You'll take that back just yet.” 

Skye laughed, leaning up again to repeat the kiss, before resting her head back on May's shoulder and tucking her face back into the comforting crook of her superior's neck. “Besides, that loving way you talk about the Bus has me feeling like the other woman.”

Both women laughed a little at this, and shortly after silence took hold of the tiny room in the sky and neither spoke anymore. May was not surprised that Skye didn't get up from where she was now leisurely relaxing on her lover, but Melinda thought perhaps that her younger trainee would probably be surprised that May didn't move her. Honestly, she didn't have the heart – and the girl was just so warm and merely her presence being so close relaxed May's high tension frame of body and mind.

They remained that way as May continued operating the Bus to bring them safely to their home, however temporary it was. The negative thoughts had drained away again, and May was determining that Skye was perhaps the ultimate distraction. Her stresses, worries, and even responsibilities seemed to melt away in the girl's presence. Whether it was a good or bad thing – that she still hadn't completely decided. But it had happened and was happening, and clearly she had been powerless to stop it. 

And when a regret would attempt to storm her system; a small, fly of a being that could still be so toxic to her frame of mind, all she had to do was look down at Skye and she would somehow, by some mysterious force, be reassured of her decision to see where this could go. May discerned with an air of both discomfort and pleasure, happiness and worry, as she brushed a lock of hair from her junior's face, that perhaps it was inevitable; and that as was usually the case, the greater good outweighed the rare risk.


End file.
